Coalcliff - History

Land grants

Matthew John Gibbons

In 1824 Matthew John Gibbons received a promise of grant of one thousand acres from Governor Macquarie. The grant was known as 'Little Bullie' and later Stanwell Park. Gibbons was actually allocated one thousand and twenty acres from the top of Bald Hill to Judge's or Stony Creek in Coalcliff.

Although the grant included Coalcliff Gibbons was unable to use it because of it's inaccessibility. The land was promised to him in 1824 but it was not finally granted to him until 1833. (Adams,1983)

Early residents

Matthew John Gibbons

Matthew John Gibbons arrived in Australia in 1790 as a convict on the Second Fleet. He received a pardon and joined the NSW Regiment as a steward to Major Francis Grose, a member of the NSW (or "Rum") Corps. He married a free settler, Margaret Gordon. He and his wife had two children, Matthew and Elizabeth. The Gibbons family went back to England for a time but they returned in 1821. Gibbons worked in the civil service as a storekeeper to the Civil Engineer until 1832.

Matthew John Gibbons was a prominent citizen of the early colony, and died a respected member of the community. (Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin 1978-83; Adams, 2005)

Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell

Mr Mitchell was a well known explorer and Surveyor General of New South Wales. He first acquired property in northern Illawarra in the 1830's. Mitchell purchased property in anticipation of the highway to Illawarra passing through the land. The highway was surveyed but not used to any extent. Mitchell lacked the means to develop the properties in the Illawarra and they passed to his son Campbell Mitchell with little having been done. (Town and Country Journal, 2 August 1879)

Early industry

Coal Mining

The Illawarra coal seams had been observed at Coalcliff as early as 1797. However, a new monopoly on coal production given to the Australian Agricultural Company at Newcastle prevented the development of a coal industry before 1848, when the monopoly was lifted.

Coalcliff at the time was the nearest mine to Sydney by more than twenty miles This valuable cliff originally belonged to Sir Thomas Mitchell, and afterwards to his son, Captain Mitchell. Captain Mitchell pened out the coal in several places but failed to persuade any others to share the responsibility of the enterprise. Faced with the great expense of providing shipping facilities, he gave up the undertaking and eventually disposed of his interest in the cliff.

The tunnelling operations of the Coalcliff Mining Company began in 1877. The land was purchased by Mr Alexander Stuart in 1876 (he later became Premier of NSW from 1883-1885). The mine was officially opened in 1878. Sir Alex had two small steam colliers built in Glasgow, the "Hilda" and the "Herga". These were especially designed for the hazardous conditions at Coalcliff. They were one hundred and twenty five feet long with a capacity of two hundred and forty tons. Hilda was lost after striking a reef near Port Hacking in 1893 but Herga served the Coalcliff mine throughout the entire period of the jetty mine.

Steam colliers were used because it was considered unsafe for sailing vessels to come so near to 'the bold rocky coast". The mine manager was Thomas Hale. He supervised the erection of the jetty (500 feet out ot sea, 20 feet deep at low tide) and a timber slide that was constructed down the one hundred and twenty foot cliff to deliver the materials.

Alexander Stuart died in 1886 and the property passed to two of his partners, Sir John Robertson and Charles Cowper. In 1890 they formed the Coalcliff and Land Company Ltd. In 1892 the colliery estate and the ships were acquired by Ebenezer Vickery, who decided to develop a shaft. It tool fifteen years before the shaft was sunk. During this time legal ownership was transferred from Ebenezer Vickery to E Vickery & Sons Ltd (1902) and later the Coalcliff Colliers Ltd (1909). These changes were largely formal as both companies were controlled by the Vickery family until 1936. (Town and Country Journal, 2 August 1879)

Early transport

Railways

Construction of a rail link between Sydney and Wollongong was approved in 1881. It was done in three sections, one from Sydney to George's River, the second from George's River to Clifton/Coalcliff and the third from Clifton to Albion Park. The first section was running by 1886.

The Coalcliff Tunnel took three million bricks to line. The third section was completed and opened in 1887 and stations were built at Clifton, Bulli and Wollongong. Fares were set at threepence a mile. A year later the second section was completed. The first through train ran from Sydney to Wollongong on 7 September 1888. (Advertiser, 15/6/1888)

Roads

There was no road or railway from Bulli to Stanwell Park only a rough track. Once the mine got underway a road became essential. In 1868 a road was constructed from the foot of Bulli Pass to Coalcliff in response to the small, but growing population in the Northern Illawarra.